The counting of votes in Rwanda’s general elections began at 3p.m at different polling stations across the country. Many polling stations were reported to have completed the exercise by 3p.m, the time officially set by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to close the exercise, though in some other areas, an extension was allowed to allow people still in the queus to a chance to cast their ballots. The process is such that once polling sites have completed the counting process they forward results to their respective tallying centres at the district level, with the letter tallying results from across the district before submitting to the National Electoral Commission headquarters in the capital Kigali. Rwanda has 27 districts, in addition to the City of Kigali, which previously was comprised of three districts. ALSO READ: Kagame, First Lady join Rwandans to cast votes in elections In an interview with the public broadcaster, NEC Executive Secretary Charles Munyaneza said the voting process had been conducted smoothly and was characterised by punctuality and discipline by the voters. There are three candidates for the president: incumbent Paul Kagame of RPF-Inkotanyi and its coalition partners, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent. Rwandans have also been voting for parliamentary candidates, with nearly 600 candidates, most of them fronted by political parties. Partial results were set to be announced Monday evening, at around 9p.m, with preliminary results set to be published not later than July 20 and the final results not later than July 27, according to NEC.
